During my first year in college, I took a job as a technician in a microbiology lab for The University of Georgia. Academia brings in researchers and graduate students from all over the world. As a young adult, I loved getting to know people with backgrounds and cultures different from my own. You get to learn so many things about the different cultural traditions, religion, holidays, music, and best of all, FOOD! I worked in the facility all through college and still to this day, in my current job, have had the privilege of working with people from a multitude of different nationalities…. So more yummy food!

Meeting and learning about people from all over the world increases your desire to travel. Unfortunately, I have not had too much opportunity to do that (with the exception of going to Tahiti and Seoul), so I live vicariously through my friends as they post images of their travel on Facebook. To the left is an image that a friend took in China. She thought it was so funny and I do as well. The sign is in Chinese characters and in English. Of course most of us reading this blog can’t read the Chinese, but good thing some kind soul translated it for us. It’s basically telling us to pity the grass. HAHA! What???

I knew this couldn’t be accurate, so I asked a Taiwanese coworker what it actually said. He laughed at the poor translation…. apparently a direct, literal translation and not one of context. He said that the Chinese could mean two different things, depending on the application of the sign. It could mean to stop and admire the beautiful flowers, while taking the time to reflect and respectfully remember all those who have left this world. So thoughtful and sweet. Or it could just mean “keep off the grass, jerk”. Since the sign is in a garden, I guess we’ll never know the intent here…. Is the garden meant to remember others or are the caretakers asking us to not step on the plants. Who knows… So let’s have fun and take it at face value: Everyone pity the grass. Poor grass. It’s humorous and I have an appreciation for things that are slightly bizarre, so here you go!!! Today’s installment of The Constant Calligrapher:

I hope you enjoyed today! Writing this blog post has sparked me to think about all of the countries represented by the people I have met throughout my life. I will try to list them here in no particular order, although I am sure to have missed some:South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Armenia, Lebanon, Croatia, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Panama, Costa Rica, Cuba, Malaysia, Thailand, Germany, England, Argentina, Ecuador, France, Bulgaria, Myanmar, Netherlands, Pakistan, Australia, Tahiti, To be continued....